Gordon Thompson Danby (November 8, 1929 – August 2, 2016) was a Canadian-American physicist notable (together with Dr. James R. Powell) for his work on superconducting

Maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage ...

, for which he shared the Franklin Institute 'Medal 2000 for Engineering'. Danby was born in Richmond, Ontario (now part of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

) and went to

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

to study mathematics and physics before going to

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

in Montreal, where he received a PhD in 1956. He started working at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...

on Long Island, New York the following year and remained there until 1999. Danby was responsible for designing the magnetic storage ring initially used for E821 at BNL, which was later moved to Fermilab for the

Muon g-2 Muon  − 2 (pronounced "gee minus two") is a particle physics experiment at Fermilab to measure the anomalous magnetic dipole moment of a muon to a precision of 0.14 ppm, which will be a sensitive test of the Standard Model. It migh ...

experiment.

References

1929 births 2016 deaths American physicists Place of birth missing Carleton University alumni McGill University alumni Canadian emigrants to the United States {{US-physicist-stub